Living the simple life in Princeton has offered us rewards that I would like to share with all who care to stop in and see. From natures outdoor beauty to indoor cooking and everything in between. Welcome to my very special world in rural Wisconsin.

Summer view

A View From Our Deck

Friday, September 13, 2013

We Aren't Really Crazy, It Just Seems That Way

If you thought I was crazy with drying my used coffee filters and shredding them, http://cabincountess.blogspot.com/2013/07/composting-used-coffee-filters.html
then you should meet my husband. He is always making little carts to carry things or creating ways to make everyday chores more efficient. Some times his time and energy saving techniques actually take more time, but the finished job is done well.

I just went out to the garage because I heard some sawing and pounding. He is making a cart for his wood splitter so he can wheel it out whenever he needs it, and it brings the splitter up higher so he doesn't have to bend over so far to split the logs. It saves his back. He recycled a handle from an old air compressor, the lumber from things he has dismantled and some other parts we had.

Notice he can't do anything without listening to his books.

The finished product.

His next project is building device to store the trolling motor and battery for the canoe. He has some wheels and brackets from an old lawn mower. We will see later what that looks like.

Then recently I went downstairs to throw some clothes into the washer. I noticed a little box on top of the dryer. Guess what was in there? You won't guess, it was empty toilet paper tubes stuffed with dryer lint. He read that these make great fire starters for the fireplace. The problem is that we don't get that much dryer lint. I think our clothes are so old they don't produce much lint anymore. It will take months to get enough to make a couple fire starters.

Toilet paper tube filled with dryer lint.

So in order to get more, we took this one step further. I have way more shredded paper than my worms need http://cabincountess.blogspot.com/2013/01/an-unusual-type-of-farmer.html so this is what we did. We filled empty toilet paper tubes with the shredded coffee filters and junk mail. It works really well. Some people may think we are crazy, but I choose to think we are being inventive.